Minix Bug Lists and Fixes

revised 21 March 2005

As with any major software package, bugs are often found and sometimes fixed between Minix releases. A release normally includes a Changes document which lists changes, including bug fixes, from the previous release. A release may also include a Bugs list if there are unfixed known bugs. Fixes may be made available between releases.

In general bugs discovered when a release is current will be fixed in the next release. But it is possible that a bug discovered when a release is current may have been present, but undiscovered earlier. If for some reason you do not want to use the latest release of Minix you may want to look at the buglists or fixes directories for newer versions and determine if any important changes apply to the older release.

History of Minix releases:

Minix 2.0.4 (released November 2003): The Minix 2.0.4 fixes directory is updated whenever ASW learns of a new patch. The contents are described in the 204fixes.txt file within this directory.

Minix 2.0.3 (released June 2001) Minix 2.0.3 fixes directory

Minix 2.0.2 (released December 1998) Minix 2.0.2 fixes directory

[Minix 2.0.1: there was no public 2.0.1 release]

Minix 2.0.0 (released October 1996 on net, on OSDI/2e text CD-ROM December 1996) Minix 2.0.0 fixes directory

Here are the official January 1997 notice of Minix 2.0.0 bugs, as well as a December 1997 update:

Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1997 14:23:58 +0100
From: Kees J Bot <kjb=730924@CS.VU.NL>
To: MINIX-L@LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU
Subject: Updated Minix 2.0 bug list

I have updated the Minix 2.0 bug list with whatever I found worthy of
being mentioned.  To spare you the trouble of getting from the usual
place I have attached it below.  Note that the make fix is the most
interesting one if you happen to have a fast machine.  Everything else
is only of interest if you having the particular problem, or if you
want to keep your system up to date.
--
Kees J. Bot, Systems Programmer, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Minix:       http://www.cs.vu.nl/ftp/minix/   ftp://ftp.cs.vu.nl/pub/minix/
Minix-vmd:   http://www.Minix-vmd.org/        ftp://www.Minix-vmd.org/
_._. .._ _   ._ ._.. ___ _. __.   _ .... .   _.. ___ _ _ . _..   ._.. .. _. .

List of bugs discovered in 2.0.0.  Please report more bugs to kjb@cs.vu.nl.

1  The code handling the resetting of an Adaptec does not work on some
   adapters, notably the old 1540A type.  A fix to this bug can be found
   in fixes/fix-1.

2  A huge "ping" packet crashes the TCP/IP server.  (The so-called "Ping
   of Death".)  For 32-bit Minix this problem can be circumvented by
   increasing the number of input buffers.  See fixes/fix-2.

3  The isoread command contains a bug in the name matching code.
   Repaired by fixes/fix-3.

4  The make command contains an insidious bug that plagues people with
   fast machines.  (Where "fast" is defined as "better than a 486/66".)
   A patch can be found in fixes/fix-4.  As a bonus this fix also adds an
   "include some-file" statement to the makefile syntax.

5  The Mitsumi CD-ROM driver interprets the "MCD" boot variable wrong.
   Use fixes/fix-5 to repair.

[update Dec 1997]
fix-3 does not repair all the problems with isoread.  Get fix-isoread 
for a more recent attempt. 

asw 28.12.97